Kathmandu – Moviegoers in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu have been deserting cinemas because of the ongoing cricket World Cup, the daily Republica reported Wednesday.
Rijaya Shrestha of QFX Cinemas said the number of moviegoers had fallen by around 50 per cent.
The cricket was affecting supply of films as well as demand, he said. ‘It has been difficult to attract viewers as no good Indian movie has been released.’
Indian filmmakers decided to postpone the release of many films to avoid having to compete with the cricket World Cup, which is scheduled to run from February 19 to April 2 in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Big Cinemas company said its audience numbers had dropped by 60 per cent, while Gopi Krishna Movies theatre said its daily takings had halved from 40,000 rupees (533 US dollars) per day to 20,000.
Nepalese cinemas take 600,000 rupees per day from Indian films, which account for most of the country’s screenings.
Deutsche Presse
